Charles Gordon Blazer, or Chuck Blazer, who for 22 years from 1991 to 2013 was the image of American football and the Concacaf and who in the last three years helped the FBI uncover the corruption plot in FIFA, Wednesday at age 72, The New York Times reported.
“Chuck hoped to help bring transparency, credibility and fair play to Concacaf, FIFA and football as a whole,” wrote their lawyers Eric Corngold and Mary Mulligan in a statement the New York Times released this evening.
Apparently a cancer determined the death of the former General Secretary of Concacaf, designated as ‘the snitch’ who helped to discover the scandal known as the FIFAgate that knocked out the presidency to the Swiss Joseph Blatter.
The former FIFA Executive Committee was accused in November 2013 of accepting $ 20 million from the Concacaf for a development center that belonged to his family members.
He agreed to collaborate with the US Department of Justice after pleading guilty to 10 counts among which are conspiracy of organized crime, electronic fraud, money laundering, tax evasion and for not presenting a balance of his accounts in foreign banks.
The FBI made him his informant during the investigation against top FIFA executives and the most revealing evidence, as it was recently found, provided them with recordings of compromising dialogues he obtained with a hidden microphone.
With these arguments, the US Department of Justice charged a group of top FIFA executives for bribery, corruption and money laundering.
Like the film, the FBI’s investigation spread to Switzerland and premiered on May 27, 2015 in Zurich, FIFA’s host city, with the arrest of fourteen people, seven leaders of the organization that then held its annual Congress with Elections to president.
As suspects of corruption, fraud, money laundering, extortion and bribes were arrested Vice President Jeffrey Webb (Cayman Islands), President of the South American Confederation (Conmebol), Uruguayan Eugenio Figueredo, presidents of the federations of Venezuela, Costa Rica , Nicaragua and Brazil, Rafael Esquivel, Eduardo Li, Julio Rocha and José María Marín, along with the British Costas Takkas, collaborator of the president of the Concacaf.
Days later, Interpol issued search and capture orders on Jackie Trinitense, FIFA Vice President and President of Concacaf, and Paraguayan Nicolas Leoz, president of Conmebol for 26 years (until 2013).
He was forced to resign for the ISL case, a company that commercialized FIFA’s audiovisual rights for years and diverted funds from those who also benefited Joao Havelange and his son-in-law, Ricardo Teixeira, who presided over the Brazilian Football Confederation ).
US newspapers said that during the Blazer investigations he helped convince two other important witnesses in the case: Darryl Warner and Daryan Warner, the children of his ex-partner Jack Warner.
Born on April 26, 1945 in New York, Chuck Blazer was instrumental in the work of the United States to win the 1994 World Cup.
In addition to this achievement, he is credited with raising his passion for football in the United States and strengthening the finances of the Confederation of North, Central America and Caribbean Football (CONCACAF).
It is said that his passion for football was born when he became coach of the team at New Rochelle, his son’s school in New York. Eight years later, he was elected executive vice president of the United States Football Federation.
He met the Trinitarian Jack Warner during the 1986 World Cup in Mexico and since then they have bonded. He convinced him to appear in the presidential elections of the Concacaf in 1990. His management was awarded with the general secretary of the entity.
He is credited with having managed the first television contract for Major League Soccer (MLS) in 1995. Four years earlier he created the Gold Cup, which currently in US territory, celebrates its fourteenth edition with the participation of twelve Selections.
Chuck Blazer maintained a tight control of the Concacaf through the millionaire contracts he negotiated for the Gold Cup and other Concacaf tournaments.
The investigations indicate that he had in his possession a credit card of the Concacaf with a quota of up to 29 million dollars for expenses and that, among his diverse extravagant tastes, paid a rent of 6,000 dollars monthly to receive his cats.
